Samsung is using a new circuit board design for the Galaxy S9 lineup, Korean outlet ETNews reported Friday, citing industry sources. The same report provides a visual component breakdown of one of the company’s upcoming Android flagships which can be seen below and is said to depict a printed circuit board meant to be included in the Galaxy S9 series. By relying on a Substrate Like PCB, Samsung should be able to equip its upcoming devices with a larger battery without altering their overall physical footprint or making compromises in another manner. Rumors of the technology being implemented into the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus originally emerged over the summer but have now been further expanded upon, with insiders claiming that only the international variants of the devices will use the solution.
It’s presently unclear whether such a scenario would see the Snapdragon 845-powered models sold in the United States and China feature smaller batteries. That possibility was recently given more credence after an alleged Galaxy S9 unit was certified by Brazil’s ANATEL with a 3,000mAh battery whose capacity was identical to the cell found inside the Galaxy S8. Even if Samsung’s main reason for moving to a new circuit board design was to allow more space for including a larger battery, insiders have yet to suggest why the company wouldn’t be able to do the same with the models meant to feature Qualcomm’s chip. The international versions of the two flagships should sport Samsung Foundry-made Exynos 9810 and are expected to account for well over a half of the lineup’s global sales.
Battery sizes may not be the only difference between the Snapdragon and Exynos variants of the Galaxy S9 devices as the former’s system-of-chip of choice was confirmed to feature a neural processing unit, whereas Samsung has yet to clarify whether its latest silicon does and was reportedly caught off guard this fall when both Apple and Huawei announced commercial devices with dedicated AI processors. The South Korean tech giant already confirmed the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus will be announced late next month at MWC 2018, with recent rumors suggesting both handsets will start retailing on March 16th following a two-week pre-order period.